“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so the the necessary may speak.”Hans Hofmann
An amazing art teacher in the 1930´s and 1940's he opened his own school in Provincetown , Massachusetts. Among his students were: Lee Krasner, Israel Levitan, Helen Frankenthaler, Gerome Kamrowski, Michael Loew, Joseph Plaskett, Fritz Bultman, William Ronald, Joan Mitchell, Michael Goldberg, Ray Eames, Larry Rivers, Jane Frank, Mary Frank, Nell Blaine, Robert de Niro, Sr., Jane Freilicher, Allan Kaprow, Red Grooms, Wolf Kahn, Marisol Escobar, Paul Resika, Sy Kattelson, Nicholas Krushenick, Burgoyne Diller, Mercedes Matter, James Gahagan, Erle Loran, Paul Georges, Louisa Matthíasdóttir, Judith Godwin, Lynne Mapp Drexler, Roland Petersen and Donald JarvisCuriously, Hans Hoffman came from a mathematics and science background.He saw nature as a source of art and believed art had a spiritual value. He wrote an important and influential book(essay) titled, "Search for the Real" explaining his spatial push/pull theories. I was luckyenough to study with one of his monitors of his class.
'The Gate', 1959-1960, collection: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum